5 May 2009

Premier Wen Jiabao announced at the Boao Forum that China stimulus packing plan is already paying off, though he added that the global recession has not been reversed yet. At eRenlai, we decided to reflect on another way of tackling the current economic turmoil starting with the revitalization of local powers. Local initiatives engineered by a strong local public sphere might actually foster the emergence of economic and politic experiments. Thus, we explore the vitality of local territories, taking Taipei County as our research field:

In our editorials section a new contributor, Nicolas Pagnier sent us his own text about consumption after reading the article An Economy of Parsimony. Also watch a Flash animation introducing Yangjie, a Taiwanese woman who takes care of orphans suffering from AIDS. And travel to Northern Vietnam with Guillaume Rosec’s photos of Hmong people.Ahead of the first anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake (May 12), Liang Zhun shares with us her experience as volunteer in the devastated area and the human lessons to be drawn from this drama.*

We wish you a merry month of May!

* For those of yours who live in Shanghai: Liang Zhung will give a conference to introduce her book of pictures on the reconstruction process after the earthquake. This book is sponsored by ‘Lafarge Shui-On’.Saturday May 16, 4pm at Sunbow Art Gallery, 3d floor, Building 0, 50 Moganshan Road (Tel. 62993931)